Participants agree that the urgency needed at a national and personal level has gone missing, and has proven to be the biggest hurdle for effective rehabilitation. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD:
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan held a consultation on Thursday stressing on the need for an appropriate policy framework on internal displacement in the country, where 2.4 million people have not been rehabilitated so far.
Themed “Internal displacement: beyond adhocism”, experts and representatives agreed that the urgency and importance with which relief work should be carried out on national and personal level has gone missing eventually which is the biggest hurdle for effective rehabilitation.
Experts cited the lack of timely planning, data collection, disorganisation and ad-hoc development projects and over population as one of the leading causes of losses incurred due to disaster.
HRCP Secretary General IA Rehman said that displacement has probably become the most important component of Pakistan’s profile, noting that when Pakistan came into being, 12 million refugees migrated into the country however, even back then no refugee policy was formulated.
“Although we face displacement in one way or the other every year, the state’s focus on displacement has remained low as we have normalised disasters in our daily lives and psyches”, Rehman said.
“Displacement can be prevented but first and foremost action should be to collect timely data and develop a sense of urgency on a national level,” he added.
Speaking of displacement due to development projects, Rehman said that everyday people are also displaced in the name of development without any comprehensive policy or legal framework to facilitate the people which represent callousness and cruelty on the government’s behalf.
Saiful Islam Saifi, journalist working in FATA in collaboration with FATA Research Centre, shared figures and scale of the nature of problem faced by IDPs.
He said that a lot needs to be done even now when despite sincere efforts by FDMA and NDMA, 73,000 families are still displaced.
“Health sector also fails to cater to the needs of the people as health issues pertaining to women and children were not responded the way they should have been, there were no adequate facilities to deal with psychological issues either,” Saidi said.
Highlighting the need for comprehensive logistic plan, Dr Khadim Hussain a political analyst based in Peshawar raised the question that on what legal grounds are people asked to leave their houses overnight.
Stressing on the need to shun exhaustive bureaucratic procedures, Hussain said that government organisations responsible for resolving issues are usually seen shifting their responsibilities to each other rather than addressing the matter more swiftly.
Balochistan HRCP chapter in-charge Sadar Tahir Hussain informed the audience that there has been an unannounced operation going on in Balochistan while the local administration has simply been left unaware of the security situation.
“The rehabilitation mechanism is virtually absent in the region. It may exist on paper, but in reality there is no rehabilitation on ground,” Hussain stressed.
PPP Senator Taj Haider discussed the importance of enhancing social integration in underprivileged communities that are vulnerable to disasters regularly.
Haider said that there is a need to develop a consciousness on a collective and individual level and “for this, we do not need to wait for a flood to happen”.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 27th, 2015.
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